Gotham Knights

The latest DC adaptation struggles to craft something spectacular from its ensemble cast and role-playing action.

Where Batman infested the city’s crevices, his underlings merely invade them: you can work together to set up terrain traps or create distractions, but it’s a world away from the older series’ puzzlebox intricacy and it’s always more fun to barge in swinging. But each has a distinct flavour that carries over to the moderately engaging story scenes, where the cast squabble about methods and unpack their feelings about Bruce Wayne. There’s overlap between roles: Robin is perfectly capable in a brawl and Red Hood no less menacing in the shadows, making it possible to play as any one hero for the entire game. Red Hood is the muscle, either grabbing throats or holding crowds at bay with 360-degree pistol salvoes, while Nightwing is a hyperactive flea, bouncing from head to head. It also spoils the feel of combat, where differences in level between character and foe aren’t reflected in the animations. Gotham Knights is a spirited work but gawkier, less assured, at once more expansive and somehow less immense.

Batman is dead. Four heroes are left to defend Gotham from countless enemies. It's an intriguing start, but Gotham Knights doesn't quite deliver.

Unfortunately, neither Batman nor Gotham Knights trusted them enough to give them a chance to prove themselves and create their own legacy. Moreover, the Knights can't get away from the Bat-shaped shadow of their fallen mentor. Is the Gotham part of Gotham Knights fun? They display a pride flag on the wall in their base. But past conventions overwhelm the new tone. It's clear that Gotham Knights wants to introduce a new generation of heroes. These details add up to an endearing glimpse of a modern Gotham. Well, there certainly isn't a lack of things to do in the city. Each day begins with your Knights checking a detective board at the Belfry, a gargantuan skyscraper located in the heart of Gotham. The Talons, a major foe in the comics, can be easily defeated by a two-step technique explained from the get-go. Standing over the ruins of the Batcave, Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Batgirl are left with a mystery to unravel — one that intertwines familiar villains with the Court of Owls, a secret society of billionaires and people of influence that has been operating from the shadows for centuries. Most of the time, however, I found myself button mashing and spamming each character's unique abilities.

Reviews for Warner Bros. first Batman game since 2015's Arkham Knight dropped today, and they are not reassuring. While a few critics like Gotham Knights ...

“For all its potential, the game falls flat,” [reported NPR](https://www.npr.org/2022/10/20/1130129906/gotham-knights-review). That’s how beholden the good in Gotham Knights is to Rocksteady’s work—but that good is still present, nevertheless. If my gear is good enough to beat the final boss—and it was—then what incentive do I have to keep playing to improve that gear? [checklist](https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/10/gotham-knights-review-its-content),” while Gamesradar accused it of [not knowing what it wants to be](https://www.gamesradar.com/gotham-knights-review/). Interior areas ran much better, but considering the bulk of the game has you sifting through the city, it was a pain to have to manage frame drops without falling off a perch and alerting an entire group of enemies. Montreal’s Gotham Knights](https://kotaku.com/gotham-knights-release-date-xbox-ps5-arkham-batgirl-1849445834) follows Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood as they attempt to maintain order amidt the chaos after a terrorist plot by the Court of Owls kills Bruce Wayne. Sure, you can press another button for ranged attacks, but if an enemy is up-close (which is often the case), you really don’t have a lot to work with, even after acquiring upgrades. It’s a multiplayer system that works so smoothly that you won’t notice any complications beyond the chance to beat up some bad guys with a buddy—and that’s as it should be. There’s a compelling game in Gotham Knights, but it’s hidden away behind a messy UX, needless crafting and customization systems, and combat mechanics that have been stretched paper thin to accommodate four heroes. The Metacritic score [currently sits at 69](https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/gotham-knights/critic-reviews), with Digital Foundry’s John Linneman [tweeting](https://twitter.com/dark1x/status/1583055289791655936) that the game doesn’t look nearly as good [as Rocksteady’s seven-year old Arkham Knight](https://t.co/FDjGc3Tv3N). [first Batman game since 2015’s Arkham Knight](https://kotaku.com/gotham-knights-batman-pc-frame-rate-performance-ps5-1849678532) dropped today, and they are not reassuring. Unlike the Arkham games which focused on exploration, stealth puzzles, and a Metroidvania-like arsenal of gadgets, Gotham Knights is primarily combat focused, with players teaming up to grind out missions that progress the story and unlock better gear.

Gotham Knights, a new open-world game set in the Batman universe from WB Games, launches on the PS5, Xbox, and Steam on October 21st.

It’s a testament to both the writers and performers that I felt connected to these heroes and found solace in their building trust and friendship with one another. But I am hesitant to return to or recommend it given the choppy frame rate and sluggish combat. A standout is the writing and performances, as all members of the Bat Family navigate their grief and hardship with fighting crime, dealing with their past together. Characters level up by earning XP by fighting and completing missions but all level up at the same time. Synchronizing character levels encourages you to switch between heroes depending on what mission you want to do: for example, Robin is the best at stealth, Batgirl at hacking, Nightwing at sass, and Red Hood for range. And the excellent writing and performances deserved better combat. There are entire cutscenes dedicated solely to each member dealing with their feelings and a member of the family, who knows them best, helping them come out the other side. Throughout this third-person open-world adventure, players switch between any of the four prior to a mission, battling old enemies — and one new one — of the Dark Knight. Fighting and traversing are the two things you’ll be doing most in the game. In contrast, I found the open world to be quite monotonous, unable to really work out which district I was in from sight alone. While a lot of crimes are procedural and repeat, these are only side activities. All are haunted by the death of their mentor and father figure.

Gotham Knights offers a fun and satisfying gameplay loop, but many features lack the follow-through needed to make a great, cohesive game.

[Gotham Knights' story](https://gamerant.com/gotham-knights-prequel-comic-expand-story/), with the ending feeling like the game was never played at all, and a lot of the story is very slow. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the rest of the game is held up to the same level and a lot of it doesn't blend like the gameplay. The game only features a handful of boss battles as it is, and this is probably why. Yet, anyone interested in anything more than that is going to face a lot of disappointment with its story beats, gameplay elements, individual features, and many other elements. There's a lot about the game that feels half-baked, from major features like this to small details like Investigations, and these elements bring down what's otherwise a solid title. All the characters end up being a little one-note, unfortunately, and while there is character development, each character tends to retread familiar territory. What happens is that players are able to self-pace their advancement of various side activities, and it's a pleasing way to interact with the world when something as simple as saving one citizen from Players will see major story developments on the map, but to complete activities like premeditated crimes, players have to investigate random crimes, interrogate enemies, and unlock them. At night, players don the cowl as one of the four playable characters and enter a patrol of Gotham City. The city is beautiful, feels alive, and is constantly filled with activity. Batman is dead, Gotham City is in shambles, and players must pick up the pieces as It is a truly fun game, and for many players, it may be easy to overlook many of its shortcomings as a result.

Gotham Knights isn't a sequel to the Batman: Arkham games, but it undeniably toils in their shadow.

That’s how beholden the good in Gotham Knights is to Rocksteady’s work—but that good is still present, nevertheless. The game’s writing and storytelling work more often than not—especially in the quieter moments that play heavily into its themes of found family and legacy. (The other three characters have their own specific movement upgrades to unlock; would it shock you to learn that they’re both cumbersome to acquire, and more complicated to play with than actually fun? You’re going to bring out not just one, but two boss battles with Mister Freeze—whose Arkham City incarnation is still a regular on lists of “Best Boss Battles Of All Time”—and have them be such dull, Video Games 101 slogs?) But all these unforced errors are being applied to a framework that’s so solid that it’s still hard not to have fun with it for a decent proportion of the time. Again, there’s the core of a good idea here—the various suits and sticks allow you to customize your gear and prepare for future challenges, a very Batman thing to do. Instead of shoving loose Bat-Suits or bo staffs into their crime-fighting pajamas, players in Gotham Knights pick up crafting materials and blueprints in abundance, bringing them back to their home base, The Belfry, for later production. Instead, it takes place in a slightly tweaked version of Bat History, albeit one familiar to even passing fans of nearly a century of Bat-Lore: Bruce Wayne is still The Batman, he’s still got a butler, and he’s still got a knack for recruiting teenagers and twentysomethings with a taste for high-impact acrobatics and nocturnal crime-fighting. (Lifted, pretty much wholesale, from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman comics from the early 2010s.) Choosing one of the four heroes (with the option to switch out periodically), players dive into the Gotham, uh, nights, hoping to honor their slain mentor’s legacy and bring the forces that killed him to justice. It makes sense, then, to chart their growth in a more formalized, and maybe even a more number-crunchy, way. Whereas the Arkham games presented a Batman fully formed (give or take a few tweaks to the tech tree), Gotham Knights is a story about heroes on the rise. To wit, expect to spend hour upon hour beating up crooks, grapple-hooking your way across Gotham—and wondering why you’re not just playing 2011's The only real difference between this Bruce, and the one you might be more familiar with, is that this one is dead—slain in the game’s opening cutscene by one of his classic foes.

Gotham Knights allows you to roam around an open Gotham City to fight crime, but before you hit the ground running, there are a few important things that ...

All you need to do is scan a few marked drones scattered around the city. Premeditated crimes are fixed, but each of the 11 standard areas of Gotham City only have a set number of crimes that can be solved per night. Try not to end the night before all available crimes have been stopped. Do all of the tutorials to learn useful tips like, for example, how to use smoke bombs with Robin to escape tough brawls, or how to interrogate criminals – a necessary action when trying to find clues for premeditated crimes. [Robin](https://www.ign.com/wikis/gotham-knights/Robin_(Tim_Drake)), [Batgirl](https://www.ign.com/wikis/gotham-knights/Batgirl_(Barbara_Gordon)), [Nightwing](https://www.ign.com/wikis/gotham-knights/Nightwing_(Dick_Grayson)), and [Red Hood](https://www.ign.com/wikis/gotham-knights/Red_Hood_(Jason_Todd)) each start out the game with three [skill trees](https://www.ign.com/wikis/gotham-knights/Skill_Trees) to pick abilities from. This may sound a bit uninteresting, but the tutorials will reward you with XP while teaching you the most important aspects of Gotham Knights’ combat. So, it’s important that you don’t waste your time by forgetting to interrogate enemies or solving nothing but low-level, opportunistic crimes. You can complete them as they pop up to gradually unlock more combat options for your character, even while trying to obtain Knighthood at the same time. To unlock fast travel, speak to Lucius Fox to begin the drone-related missions. Momentum Abilities are special moves that can be used in combat when the momentum meter fills up. These challenges will take more than one night to complete because some task you with stopping premeditated crimes, which need to first be discovered through Once the tutorials come to an end, there are several ways to enhance the Batfamily’s crime-fighting abilities that'll also improve your overall experience with the game.

Batman is gone, and the city of Gotham needs new heroes to take control. As sidekicks become big players, which character should you pick?

On the momentum ability front, you can deal a lot of damage with Beatdown or use Drone to summon a drone to damage enemies and heal Batgirl. Alternatively, you can use Cloak to make Robin completely invisible for 10 seconds, giving you an easy way to escape and get stealthy again or a few moments to take out a couple of enemies before the start of the fight. As a result, she’s the best choice if you plan on playing It can be annoying to have to be sent back to a previous checkpoint or lose resources upon death, and playing as Batgirl ensures you’ll never run into that problem when alone. While many of his momentum abilities are more focused on combat than stealth, you can use Bo Spin to get Robin out of a sticky situation and deal some damage along the way. With Vigilante Resolve, she can do it twice, and with Second Wind+, she gains a momentum segment and a 10% critical hit chance buff. Robin can also use to teleport during his Knighthood traversal ability to do a Slideways Takedown that can instantly take down any enemy in sight. Mystical Rounds allows him to shoot a Lazarus Pit-powered attack that deals massive damage to enemies, and Portable Turret lets Red Hood set up a mini-turret that can take on some enemies while you’re fighting someone else. All four of them have very skills, Knighthood traversal abilities, and Momentum Abilities they can use to take on enemies they encounter while patrolling Gotham City. If your ally dies, the Revive Darts skill also gives you a quick way to heal them. Meanwhile, two of his Momentum Abilities, Elemental Shockwave and Whirlwind, do great area-of-effect damage, knocking enemies back and possibly dealing elemental damage to them. Red Hood doesn’t have as definitive of an advantage or use case as the other three heroes; he’s just very strong up close and from afar.

Street Art locations: Bowery; Bristol; Cauldron; Financial District; Gotham Heights; Old Gotham; Otisburg; Robinson Park; Tricorner Island; West End.

Bristol in Gotham Knights has one piece of street art for you to find and, unlike most of the street art, it’s not located along a stretch of road. If you’re having trouble finding this street art, head to the statute of a globe being held aloft by tentacles in Robinson Park. The first - Our Friend Joe - is the easiest to find as you’ll clearly see it by crossing the bridge linking the Financial district to the West End. Here, on the left-hand side, you’ll find the street art, entitled Origin of Evil. This is because Otisburg’s street art actually sits on the border between this district and Bowery, so you might not think to look there. It’s located within the tunnel which runs beneath Chambers Street, lying on the border between Robinson Park and Gotham Heights. This is an easy mural to find, because it’s painted on a building east of Gotham City Cathedral. For this piece of street art, you need to head to the bridge which connects the Bowery to Bristol, but don’t go on the bridge. Once there, you’ll want to jump over eastern side and this should land you directly in front of the art, entitled Faces of Gotham. It will appear on your left-hand side on a building, which has high wire fences in front of it. If this list contains a spray can symbol, a piece of street art is hidden within the district and, once found, it will be ticked off! It’s important to note that not all Gotham City districts contain a piece of street art.

Gotham Knights boasts a seriously stacked cast of supporting characters all brought to life by an impressive group of voice actors.

While Freeze sadly doesn’t make incredible puns like that one in Gotham Knights, he’s certainly one of the game’s most intimidating villains as well as one of the biggest threats to post-Batman Gotham. Keane has popped up in everything from House of Cards and Ray Donovan to The Gilded Age and Dopesick. You’d probably expect The Penguin to immediately step up and become the crime lord of Gotham now that Batman’s dead, but his role in the game is a bit more complicated than that. Brian Keane certainly assumes the role of Clayface quite nicely in Gotham Knights. Mylène Dinh-Robic’s voice will probably sound very familiar to gamers thanks to her recent appearance in 2021’s Guardians of the Galaxy game as Meredith Quill. In a game all about people stepping up to fill some big shoes, it’s fitting that Talia Al Ghul has a major role to play in Gotham Knights. While Gotham Knight‘s heroes worried that Alfred wouldn’t know what to do with himself without Bruce Wayne in his life, it turns out that he’s more than willing to assume a similar role for Gotham’s new heroes. Red Hood’s path to becoming one of Gotham Knight‘s playable protagonists has been interesting, to say the least. Nightwing has been honing his craft for quite some time, and his skills are certainly being put to the test now that Batman is going. Video game-wise, he most recently played Arokkeh in Horizon Forbidden West and has previously lent voicework to titles like Ghost of Tsushima. Of course, it’s the voices of those characters as much as their faces that really sell how much they belong to be the stars of an unlikely Gotham adventure. While some fans balked at those creative decisions, it’s certainly nice to see Batgirl patrolling the streets of Gotham again.

Gotham Knights' base game can be played solo or in two-player co-op, but only co-op players have access to a satisfying tag-team mechanic.

It is in Heroic Assault where co-op tag-team takedowns will surely be the most exciting, since fans will potentially be able to see two tag-team takedowns initiated at once. In the meantime, before Heroic Assault launches, players will have all of Gotham Knights' base game to enjoy. If companion NPCs could accompany players in Gotham Knights’ open-world Gotham City, players could freely perform co-op takedowns whenever they wanted. This begins a satisfying animation where both characters are involved in taking a thug down, and is a mechanic that will only be available in co-op as a result. Fans may play however they like, but it should be noted that in single-player they will miss out on one of Gotham Knights’ most satisfying mechanics: co-op tag-team takedowns. As players pursue case file quests and scrounge for collectibles, it will be interesting to see whether fans choose to play in single-player or two-player.

Gotham Knights is the rare modern open-world game that doesn't let you fast travel around its setting, Gotham City. Here's how to unlock fast travel.

That makes scanning some drones pretty tedious, as you basically have to follow their lazy, looping flight paths until they stop for a rest. Fox has developed a mech-like wing suit that can ferry you around the city in seconds, but of course, things can’t be quite that easy. Fox aided Batman by providing him with gadgets and R&D, and he’s eager to do the same for the Bat-family now.

Who should you play as: Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, or Robin? Learn what they're best at before you decide.

Using mystical satellite technology, he can teleport long distances, which effectively means holding the right trigger and slowly maneuvering a cursor to where you want him to reappear. Leveling him up further can increase the efficacy and uptime of those effects, as well as making Robin more resistant to them when inflicted by enemies. Several of his abilities, including his ranged attacks and the aforementioned decoys, deal elemental damage. These abilities can be augmented with the power to knock down enemies and gain momentum energy more quickly, letting him use special attacks more frequently. This traversal power is most similar to the ones found in the Arkham games. The degree to which the game world bends depending on who you’re playing as is one of the game’s impressive hat tricks.

As a follow-up to the popular Arkham series, this game brings in the Bat Family -- Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin -- to investigate the death of the ...

Despite this, the usual array of collectibles, interesting photo points and other ways to spend your time in the city pop up while on patrol. Then in some cases, the camera is clearly fixed on one spot but the Grapple Gun picks a completely different direction requiring you to cancel the movement and try again. Every character rides it the same way, and it moves like a tank when turning. None of the Bat Family really jump off the screen. One sadly lacking aspect of the Bat Family is their lack of character. The outlier is Jason Todd, who goes by Red Hood and played a major role in 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight. As a follow-up to the popular Arkham series, this game brings in the Bat Family -- Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin -- to investigate the death of the Dark Knight. Most of the stealth takedowns consist of either attacking from a perch above or creeping up behind enemies, but there's a small window where these takedowns seem to suffer from technical issues. Stealth was another important aspect of the Arkham series, and Gotham Knights includes segments where going in silently is the ideal approach. As they work on the big case, there are side missions that let you stop criminals from robbing armored cars, prevent kidnappings and generally fight the crime you'd expect to occur on a Gotham night. The Belfry in Wayne Tower acts as the HQ throughout the game. Gotham Knights lets you play as any of the Bat sidekicks as they chase down evidence from their mentor's last case, to figure out why he died.

Compared to Rocksteady's Arkham trilogy, Gotham Knights feels like a pale imitation that falls flat at every turn.

The issue is that Gotham Knights doesn't hold a candle to any of these games. Gotham Knights isn't a new entry in the Arkham series, of course. This is a third-person brawler set in the Batman universe that visually resembles the trio of best-selling, critically beloved titles that came before it. Aslyum, City and Knight fully immerse you in the Batman fantasy, successfully crafting a depiction of the caped crusader that was deadly, capable and - perhaps best of all - human. [Ed detailed in his review earlier this week](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/gotham-knights-review), Gotham Knights is a bit of a disappointing dud. Rocksteady's trio of Batman-em-ups are essential superhero games, titles that redefined the genre and provided a template that still feels contemporary to this day.

Nightwing crouches in a dramatic superhero pose in Gotham Knights. Image: WB Games Montreal/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Gotham Knights lets you take ...

You get a ton of them through the course of normal gameplay, so don’t be afraid to apply them willy-nilly. Also, the Batcomputer’s database is a massive repository of information about the game, as well as Gotham City and the larger Batman universe in general. From the workbench in the Belfry, your main base of operations, you can “transmog” the armor you’re wearing. Highlight an item in your loadout menu, then click the left stick in, and you can dismantle it into crafting materials. Sure, it’s fun to swap now and then and experience character-specific story beats, but from a gameplay perspective, you can choose whatever hero suits you best. [Gotham Knights](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23413637/gotham-knights-review-batman-platforms-release-date-characters-30-fps) lets you take control of [four members of the Bat-family](https://www.polygon.com/guides/23415238/gotham-knights-characters-batgirl-nightwing-red-hood-robin) — Batgirl, Red Hood, Robin, and Nightwing — to fight crime and solve Batman’s last case.

Warner Bros. Games and DC today announced that Gotham Knights, the new open-world, third-person action RPG (role-playing game), is now available for P.

WARNER BROS. Developed by Warner Bros. Warner Bros. GOTHAM KNIGHTS software © 2022 Warner Bros. Games Montréal, a Warner Bros. GAMES LOGO, WB SHIELD: ™ & © Warner Bros. Established in 2010, Warner Bros. Games, a division of Warner Bros. [Batman: Gotham Knights – Gilded City](https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dc.com%2Fblog%2F2022%2F07%2F22%2Fdc-reveals-the-official-comic-prequel-to-the-gotham-knights-game&esheet=52949596&newsitemid=20221021005041&lan=en-US&anchor=Batman%3A+Gotham+Knights+%26%238211%3B+Gilded+City&index=8&md5=5ba9242a0a2eb916b9fd0341725e5784). “Gotham Knights is the culmination of the hard work by the entire Warner Bros. The Gotham Knights Standard Edition is available for $69.99 (SRP). “We are thrilled to launch Gotham Knights and return players to Gotham City to play as the iconic DC Super Heroes Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin,” said David Haddad, President, Warner Bros.